Process Theology

Jeremiah’s prophesies are not apocalyptic. Hence process theologians can take them much more straightforwardly. Jeremiah is hoping that a descendant of David will assume the throne of Israel and create a nation to which the widely dispersed Jews can return. He pronounced this vision of a hopeful future at a very low period of Israel’s condition. All of its leaders had been carried into exile or had fled to Egypt. Israel and Judah as nations had ceased to exist.

The readings from Jeremiah, Colossians, and Luke provide material for an interesting take on the theme of the Reign of Christ. Colossians 1:11-20 includes a hymn (vv. 15-20) that embraces a number of themes: Christ’s pre-existence and status as the one in whom all things cohere; the resurrection and exaltation; Christ’s role as the head of the church; and Christ’s work of universal reconciliation through his death on the cross.

On this second-to-last Sunday of the lectionary cycle, the readings swing into full apocalyptic mode for the end of the Church Year. In this passage from Isaiah, we get the “positive” side of the apocalypse: the promise of a new heaven and a new earth, in which God’s holy mountain will be a peaceable kingdom and the city of Jerusalem will be re-created as a joy and its people as a delight.

This Psalm expresses sentiments that are much closer to the American people these days. Placed on the lips of David, it asks God to recognize his virtue and give him the protection he deserves. It partakes of the self-righteousness against which I wrote in the commentary for last week.

Although process theologians disagree on the issue of subjective immortality (the survival of the individual person after death as an experiencing subject), they are firmly united in the affirmation of objective immortality (the retention of all experience in the everlasting life of God). And the function of such an affirmation is to insure the meaningfulness of life.